Save the Children Races to Children & Families

Save the Children plans to provide emergency assistance to save lives, alleviate suffering, and support the recovery of 800,000 people (including 470,000 children) affected by the earthquake in Haiti. We plan to transition into longer term rehabilitation and reconstruction to ensure a better future for Haiti’s children.

Number of beneficiaries we plan to reach: 800,000

Number of total beneficiaries reached so far: *502,766
*number includes distributed medical supplies and medicines to support beneficiaries over 6 wk period

“So many children and families have gone now three weeks with barely any steady food supply. We’ve met a pregnant mother who has told us that since the earthquake, her children had only been eating a meal a day, without vegetables or meat.”
Halane Hussein, Save the Children’s Emergency Advisor in Haiti.

Save the Children's work is taking place in Port-au-Prince and in nearby communities; we are also monitoring the relocation of families away from Port-au-Prince.

Emergency Health Care
• On February 4, 1,344 patients were treated by our 13 mobile health teams in 36 camps.
• A new clinic was established in Gaston Margon, outside the main town of Carrefour, where conditions were significantly worse than the camps in the town
• In Jacmel, our seven mobile teams vaccinated children against measles on February 4. They also distributed vitamins and screened children for malnutrition.
• In Leogane, a field hospital supported by Save the Children and operated by a partner, World Wide Villages, has treated approximately 250 patients
• Save the Children and another partner did an aerial assessment of rural areas and identified a site where some 250 homeless families were gathered. A mobile team health team was dispatched.

Food
• Save the Children is conducting a two-week, mass food distribution to some 285,000 children and adults in Martisant and Tabarre, Port-au-Prince in cooperation with the World Food Program. To date, over 95,000 people have benefited from our food relief.

Water
• In Port-au-Prince, Carrefour Feuilles and Jacmel, 29,000 children and adults have access to clean water though Save the Children.
• Latrines and showers we have constructed are available to 13,800 people.
• Save the Children and partner agencies are delivering water by tanker truck to distribution points we have created.
• In Leogane, we distributed approximately 215,000 water purification tablets – providing more than 300 families with safe water. We also trained 12 health agents in household water treatment and hygiene promotion in the community.

Shelter and Non-Food Relief Items
• 8,600 people have received essential non-food relief items, such as hygiene supplies and plastic sheeting for shelter.
• 125 tents are being provided for a small settlement of homeless families in Cote de Fer. Blankets, jerry cans and hygiene kits will also be distributed.
• The first distributions of items for some 580 families in Jamal will take place on February 6.
• 1,000 family-size tents are being shipped by Save the Children from China, where the agency responded to that nation’s earthquake in 2008.
• 100 semi-permanent structures for housing or other uses have been ordered.

Child Protection
• 18 Child Friendly Spaces in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel have been opened. Each serves an average of over 100 children a day through structured, supportive activities. Save the Children plans to open hundreds of these essential sites for children.
• Save the Children has trained 50 social workers from other nongovernmental organizations to provide psychosocial support to children, including training in child protection policies and how to conduct activities at our Child Friendly Spaces.
• The agency has been requested by the UN to coordinate the reunification of separated children with their families.

Education
• Save the Children will be among the lead agencies to rapidly restore education for children to provide them with a structured, secure environment. Our goal is to establish 3,000 temporary learning spaces targeting at least 80,000 children
• We are assisting the Ministry of Education in a needs assessment to determine the number of schools that have been destroyed, partially damaged and those that were not damaged. The assessment will also identify the number of children and teachers in the affected areas.
• Field visits by our staff in three camps found no teachers, but children and parents anxious for education to resume.

Livelihoods
• Save the Children plans to offer “cash-for-work” to clear out irrigation channels for the up-coming planting season.

Save the Children has committed to a five-year Build Back Better initiative, which will take us from the relief and recovery phase to working with families to rebuild their communities. The strategy is similar to the five-year rebuilding initiative we launched in Aceh Province, Indonesia following the epic December 2004 tsunami. Our goal is to provide emergency assistance to save lives, alleviate suffering, and support the recovery of 800,000 people (including 470,000 children) affected by the earthquake, and transition into longer-term rehabilitation and reconstruction to ensure a better future for Haiti’s children.

Number of beneficiaries we plan to reach: 600,000
Number of total beneficiaries reached so far: 172,751
Overview of Activities by Sector:

Non-Food Items (NFIs) Distribution:
8600 people are benefitting from NFIs Save the Children (SC) has distributed

WASH:
Approximately 16,500 beneficiaries are receiving clean water
Health:
Save the Children has carried out 2857 medical consultations in the last week, including 660 children under 5 years through the mobile clinics. Save the Children is responsible for providing health services in 32 camps/locations.
Save the Children is playing a significant role in strategic discussions with World Health Organization (WHO) in the national health cluster, and is also responsible for leading the sub-national health cluster in Leogane and the sub-cluster for mobile clinics in Jacmel.

The priority of the health cluster is moving towards provision of primary health services through mobile clinics and fixed health facilities. A national immunization campaign is planned to start next week.

Nutrition:
· 31 nutritional and 109 health agents from the commune of Leogane have been trained as breastfeeding promoters and a number of these will be trained as breastfeeding counselors next week.

Child Protection
· 17 Mobile Child Friendly Spaces are up and running in Port-au-Prince (PAP) and Jacmel. Child Protection programs will soon be starting in Leogane as well.

Food/Livelihoods:
· SC food distributions have reached over 30,000 beneficiaries thus far. This number will increase greatly once World Food Programme (WFP) distributions in PAP begin tomorrow and continue for the next 2 weeks.

“The spirit of the Haitian people has been remarkable. The word resilience does not do it justice. Our national staff has come back to work, often under incredibly difficult circumstances, to help the children of Haiti when they need it the most. On the streets—where tens of thousands still sleep each night—and in hundreds of makeshift camps that have sprung up in clearings amongst the rubble—there is still a sense of community where neighbours and strangers alike are working together to help each other survive.”
- Lee Nelson, Country Director, Save the Children in Haiti

An amazing 360 panoramic view to give a sense of what it is like for children and their families living in impromptu camps:
http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/haiti360/

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